A Magical Trick for Keeping the Sparkle in Your Sparkling Wine

As long as you have a metal spoon, you don't have to worry about finishing the whole bottle of bubbly in one night.

I come to you today to tell you about something magical. I find it magical for several reasons, the first and foremost being that it has to do with Champagne—or really, any sparkling wine at all. And, anything having to do with sparkling wine I find naturally has a certain allure and sophistication. It is immediately something I want to know about because sparkling wine—in any guise, be it a flute, a coupe, a cocktail, a spritz—is one of my very favorite things to drink.

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It's second only to water and coffee, which I guess technically makes it third. But it's first in my heart, even if it's third in the pecking order of necessity for functioning. Along with all other sane people, I turn toward a regular rotation of Aperol spritzes and sparkling rosé during the stretches summer that are most sun-soaked and Mediterranean.

And the rest of the year, I keep a bottle of sparkling wine on hand at all times just in case there is something to celebrate or a bad day to shake off, which, let’s face it, there is at least a couple times a month.

But, here is the trouble with sparkling wine: It is sparkling, and if you don’t drink the whole bottle, then you need one of those super-complicated-snazzy-multi-part-hinged-top-with-pump-attached-thingamadoos if you want to store the remainder of your bubbly beverage so that it doesn’t go flat and subsequently to waste.

...Or do you?

Here comes the true magic: You don’t. All you need is a spoon. I learned this trick at least 9 or 10 years ago and have been using it quite effectively ever since. No one else I have shared it with has known about it already or has even remotely been able to explain it. Thus, magic.

Today I share it with you, and if you can explain it, well, I’m not sure I want to know. This is the trick: All you have to do is dangle a spoon, bowl side up, handle hanging down, in the top of the open sparkling wine bottle and leave it in the fridge.

Seriously.

That’s it!!!!

No other closures, no nothing, just a dangling spoon. I feel stupid even saying it. But, it works.

It works best with a silver spoon (because all magic works best with silver), but I have also had it work just fine with a plain old stainless steel spoon. Plastic, on the other hand is no dice. The handle doesn’t need to be touching the liquid or anything (if it is, you clearly haven’t had enough of your wine and probably should have at least one more glass). You just dangle the spoon in, refrigerate, and leave it. It has not worked 100% of the time, but over the last decade of regularly drinking sparkling wine, and regularly taking multiple days to make my way through the bottle, I think it has only not worked three times.

That’s a dang fine performance. If I have an open bottle of sparkling wine, it routinely takes me at least 4 days to finish it if I don’t have someone else sharing it with me (what can I say, my husband stereotypically prefers beer. P.S. This has also worked for us with large bottles of beer we didn’t finish in one sitting, those fancy Belgian-types, for example). If I dangle in a spoon, the wine is still fizzy on all three consecutive extra days when I pour myself a glass.

So, pour yourself a glass of bubbly—and grab a spoon so you can save the rest—because this is a trick worth celebrating.

First and second to last photo by Emily Vikre; all others by James Ransom

I like to say I'm a lazy iron chef (I just cook with what I have around), renegade nutritionist, food policy wonk, and inveterate butter and cream enthusiast! My husband and I own a craft distillery in Northern Minnesota called Vikre Distillery (www.vikredistillery.com), where I claimed the title, "arbiter of taste." I also have a doctorate in food policy, for which I studied the changes in diet and health of new immigrants after they come to the United States. I myself am a Norwegian-American dual citizen. So I have a lot of Scandinavian pride, which especially shines through in my cooking on special holidays. Beyond loving all facets of food, I'm a Renaissance woman (translation: bad at focusing), dabbling in a variety of artistic and scientific endeavors.

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34 Comments

I'm a sommelier who opens a bottle of sparkling wine and if it's not finished by bed time then it only deserves one option: a champagne cork stopper that seals in every precious bubble remaining in the bottle. It's the same as any bottle of wine, once exposed to oxygen, the pleasurable effect of what's in the juice has a limited life. Sparklers especially succumb quicker because CO2 has a very short shelf-life. Invest in a champagne cork saver, a sealed stopper that will save every single bubble remaining if you're too lame to finish a bottle after opening.

It's actually an urban myth try it over Christmas when you open two bottles spoon one and not the other then blindfold your subjects, they both retain bubbles to the same extent as long as they were opened at the same time and kept in the same condition

The spoon method works well for a day, what I've found works quite well is reusing the cage. I fit the cap on top and twist the cage tightly. I can keep it bubbly for 3 days with this method. Cling film and a well wound elastic band work well with beer.

Being French, I have a lot of experience on these matters, particularly on Champagne, my preferred of all bubbly stuff - of course :-) I have used the spoon trick for years, learnt it from my Mom and Grandma. Yes it works better with silver, and no it is not the same if you leave the bottle opened without the spoon or without an ad hoc cork. But I must confess that I cannot remember when is the last time that we kept a bottle opened for more than 24 hours after we opened it :-))

I can't remember where I picked this up, but it's been years and I've been doing it on! Love this trick, people always look at me weird when I do it but it works on the very few occasions we can't finish s bottle of bubbles! Cheers!

Again, this has been tested with controls. There is literally no difference between refrigerated, open bottles with or without spoons (silver or otherwise). The preservation of carbonation is not in question. It is, however, a result of the physical conditions produced by lower temperatures, not silverware.

That's because champagne is very bubbly to start with (much more so than a lot of craft beer or soda in the states). The CO2 escapes at the same rate with or without that spoon (unless the spoon is big enough to fill the whole top of the bottle), but you'll be left with some bubbles after a day or two whether you put a spoon, fork, or nothing at all in it. It's telling that nearly everyone on this thread says they don't take more than a day or two to finish - that is about how long it would take most champagne to go flat naturally.

Per ablebodiedgirl's link, keeping it cold is key: the bubbles are soluble at low temperatures.

This is why soda (Coca-Cola et al) fizzes less if you pour over ice cubes versus pouring into a glass with no ice. Also, warm soda fizzes a lot more than cold soda.

One thing the champagne stopper does is minimize the risk of having unwanted odors affecting the wine during its storage time in the refrigerator. Theoretically, you just use some plastic wrap and a rubber band, but it's easier to get a $5 champagne stopper and forget about it.